The CCI had approached the apex court in January against the Bombay High Court order setting aside a probe ordered by the competition watchdog on charges of cartelisation against the telcos by Reliance Jio.

Amid instances of possible regulatory overlaps, including with respect to telecom sector regulator Trai's directive on predatory pricing, he said the CCI is concerned with "ex-post regulation" of anti-competitive behaviour of market players.

The ASG had earlier in the day defended the fair trade watchdog’s had powers to direct such a probe under the law before a Supreme Court bench and urged it to urgently hear the challenge to the CCI’s powers to do so.

After PSU banks, the government is likely to infuse capital in two chronically ill telecom PSUs BSNL and MTNL, and the Union Cabinet is likely to take a decision on 4G spectrum allocation to them by the third week of the current month after DoT places the note before it for consideration.

At a high-level meeting at the PMO late Tuesday, it was also decided that the two telcos will frame a Voluntary Retirement Scheme (VRS) to reduce their employee strength, which will be followed by a reduction in the retirement age to 58.